Druden Emerge from the Depths

At the beginning of the year, in the midst of a Seattle snowstorm, I trekked downtown to the legendary Crocodile to witness Wolves in the Throne Room play in support of their Celestial Lineage tour. Billed to open was Druden, a band no one I talked that night had ever heard of. The Portland group took the stage and enchanted the crowd with their intense, doomified version of black metal that, although not completely unique for this area of the world, was simply mesmerizing. Their performance was the highlight of the night and without a doubt stole the show away from the much too serious, no lights allowed set of WITTR.

The unknown band had no merch to sell, and after an online search resulted in nothing other than a few past show flyers, I gave up thinking it was the last I would hear from this new force in Cascadian black metal. Fortunately, Druden recently recorded three tracks and uploaded them to a recently minted homepage that is also up to date with new show listings. Listen to them here. The three long songs are available for streaming only, but I highly recommend keeping an eye and ear out for this new PNW legion.